Memorial Day
by MMaiden
Summary: This, boys and girls, is the story of true heartbreak. A beautiful girl from one part of town, a handsome boy from the other.


AN: I took the idea of Patti telling a story from Star Crossed Lovers and Other Strangers so the use of the boy and the girl is kind of following that format… Sorry if it's annoying. I don't own any of the characters or locations… anything. Also this is a first draft written about 1 am… be constructive but keep that in mind.

Memorial Day

The sun rained down flawlessly on the town square in Stars Hollow, Connecticut. It was covered in fresh bouquets of flowers, all conveniently visible from the windows of Luke's Diner, almost glowing in the light. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and with the exception of the excess flora it was business as usual to anyone who has seen life in a small town. There were kids biking along the streets, the local gossips swapping stories, and families bustling in and out of the little shops running errands; no one even seemed to notice the flowers, no one but the children at least.

Miss Patti was making her way to lunch when she felt a little tug on her dress. "Oh, my! I wouldn't do that too often Davie dear; a woman might get the wrong idea. What can I do for all of you?"

A small group of kids had gathered behind Davie Belleville, all looking slightly unsure of themselves and gazing up at her hopefully. "We… We want to know about the flowers." Martha said through a thumb in her mouth, stepping out from behind her brother. "We want to know why Mr. Luke is so sad and Mommy and Daddy won't talk about it and their mommies and daddies won't either but we know that the flowers are for Mr. Luke, that's the only place you can see them all from, and you know all the stories so we thought you could tell us." she rushed out.

Patti sighed and stepped aside. "Come in and sit down and I'll tell you all why we put out flowers on this day.

This, boys and girls, is the story of true heartbreak. A beautiful girl from one part of town, a handsome boy from the other. She had been brought here by great misfortune with a daughter of one, when she herself was only 17, to work as a maid at an inn."

"The Dragonfly?" one little boy spit out.

"No. The Independence Inn. And if you interrupt me I'll never finish. Anyway, this girl and her daughter lived at first in an old potting shed behind the inn. It wasn't much but the girl worked very hard to make it a happy place for her daughter and to be able to take care of her. She put up rosebud wallpaper and curtains to try to make it feel like a real house and eventually the girl was able to actually give her daughter a home here in town. The girl and her child became best friends like this town had never seen. Yes a mother and daughter were best friends, I see you cringing over there Sally.

Well one day the girl ventured into town and walked into the diner. Now the boy of our story, really a man, owner this diner and he worked in it every day, serving the people of Stars Hollow without fail. He was really hurting the first time he met this girl. His long-term girlfriend, Rachel, had left him a while before and he hadn't quite recovered at the time. The poor thing was very sulky and reserved never quite sociable but oh dear was he a looker mark my words ladies…"

"Miss Patti! What does this have to do with the flowers?"

"The flowers? Oh yes. Got a little side tracked. The flowers! So the girl went into the diner and met the boy and they became very good friends. The girl and her daughter would come and eat at the diner every day at least once and the girl would talk and flirt and joke with the boy and they slowly grew to love each other, only neither one ever saw it."

"They didn't see that they were in love?"

"No darling. They were the only two people in this whole town."

"But why didn't anyone tell them?"

"Oh everyone did. Or at least tried to. But they wouldn't listen and so years went by but every time they started to notice the glow in each other's eyes they got side tracked. The girl got engaged to a teacher at her daughter's school, a story in of it's self, and Rachel came back to get back together with the boy and though neither worked out they stopped them from falling in love.

"But I thought you said they already loved each other?"

" Well yes but there's a difference between loving someone and being _in love_ with someone. You can love someone by yourself, from a far like these two, but to be _in love_ it takes two knowing the others feelings. At any rate something seemed to always come up, the boy even went through with a marriage once to an evil witch of a woman Nicole. But the girl was there for him when it didn't work out and not long after the divorce was final they finally got a chance."

"I thought you said this was sad Miss Patti! It seems pretty happy to me."

"Oh honey, let me finish. The couple got together and everything was fine except for the girl's family. You see, when the girl gave birth to her daughter at sixteen, she lived with her parents who were very rich and lived in Hartford. She ran away with her daughter to Stars Hollow because they wanted her to marry the father of her child, Christopher. They had been good friends from the time they were very little and then dated but the girl knew they weren't meant for each other so refused him. Christopher never stopped wanting her though, and the girl's parents never stopped wanting her to marry him and when they found out the girl was dating the diner boy they were very upset and set up a plan to break them up. They threw a big fancy party and invited Christopher, knowing the girl would bring the diner boy as her date, and they told Christopher to try and win the girl back. The girl's parents knew it wouldn't work then but they also knew that the boy hated Christopher because he knew their past and that if the girl showed any sympathy towards Christopher that the boy would probably break up with her. The plan worked and they broke up temporarily.

Both the girl and the boy were very sad for a long time and their break up split the entire town but they got back together and were stronger then ever and soon engaged to be married. The girl and her daughter fought for the first time and the boy was there for her, and then the boy found out he had a daughter from years before he had even met the girl. Well the girl tried to be there for him like he had been for her but he wouldn't let her. The boy so admired the girl, and so loved her he was afraid his daughter would like her better so tried to keep them separated for a time and got so overwhelmed by it he asked the girl to postpone their wedding until he could get used to it. The only time the girl ever spent time with the boy's daughter, April was when the girl helped the boy throw April a birthday party and then April's mother, Anna, got angry with the boy because she thought the girl was just a fling. The girl was told to stay away from April and out of her life until the boy married the girl, and as hurt as the girl was by this she agreed as a single mother and in order for the boy to be able to keep seeing April.

The girl, though, was not used to being cut out of part of the boy's life, by now she had become very involved in it, and slowly grew more and more impatient until she couldn't wait. One night she told him how sad and frustrated it was making her, because she was never the kind to wait around, and begged him to run away and get married. But he said no and so she went off on her own and went to Christopher instead."

There was a little gasp from the small audience. "Why did she do that?" a little girl asked. "Did he go after her? The boys always go after the girls in the movies." Another added. "Real men don't go after girls! Real men don't need them!" one of the little boys stated proudly before adding quietly "But if he loved her why did he let her go to Christopher?"

"Children! Children! These are all good questions but no one really knows the answer to them. After spending the night with Christopher the girl came back to town to face the boy. She told him and he was very hurt and very angry and called off their wedding. She returned the ring and the town started to divide again but she refused to let him take any of the blame and made it clear that it was her fault. It tore the boy up so see her so unhappy but he didn't know if he could ever trust her. He fought with himself for many days, starting walking over to her house to end the misery at least twice a night for weeks on end. Some nights he would barely make it out of the diner, others he would make it to her front steps. When he finally knocked she had gone. She had left town without a trace. We see her daughter from time to time; she comes to town and stays at the girl's house because the girl could never bring herself to sell it. Every now and then someone hears from the girl but if anyone has details they're not common knowledge."

"But what does this have to do with the flowers or the diner man? And why did the girl leave? They only broke up…" Martha asked from the front.

"It has everything to do with it! Today, June 3rd, is the anniversary of the day our couple was to be married and the day the girl left Stars Hollow. He refuses to talk about the girl and never accepts any gifts or gestures so the town bans together and lets him know that we care by placing flowers in the square for him to see. Now the boy of our story is Mr. Luke, and his heart broke for good that day and, though he will never admit it, he is still waiting for the girl to come back so they can have their middle, or at least their end. To this day the only time you'll see him truly happy is when he is with April or another member of his family, the rest of the time he's functional and those who didn't know him before she left don't see anything wrong. But those of us who have known him through it all can tell there's a certain emptiness and wandering about him. You never recover from the loss of your true love but I believe he will wait the rest of his life if he has to. As for the girl and why she left, it may have been too much to live in this town with all their memories, seeing him all the time, and having no hope of forgiveness. She probably thought Mr. Luke would never take her back for what she did so she went somewhere that she could start over.

And, that, my friends is the story of why we put flowers out on the square. And now I can finally go get my lunch."

"Miss Patti! Wait! You never told us her name!

"Who's dear?"

"The girl's! You said Mr. Luke's but never the girl's!" one of the kids spurt. "Yeah! What was her name?" the rest chimed it.

"Why I thought that would be obvious. Lorelai. Her name was Lorelai Gilmore."

Patti got up and left the children to chatter, and stood outside her studio for a minute. She, like everyone else in the town, had been rooting for the couple since the beginning, and never quite gave up on them. But over the years as she told the story over and over it seemed a little bit of faith slipped away with each word. For some reason though, telling these children the tale renewed that faith, and she set off to the diner surer then ever that there would be a happy ending after all.


End file.
